Boro Park’s Animal Torah World to Close

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shaul-shimon-deutsch-2The Animal Torah World in Boro Park will be closing its doors.

Beset by financial woes, officials at the museum – which boasts every animal mentioned in the Chumash – said there’s no choice but to move out of Boro Park.

“I tried to work through the terrible economy that we’re in, but it just came to a point that we now had to make a decision to sell it,” Rabbi Shaul Shimon Deutsch, who owns and operates the museum, told the New York Post.

“All the animals [in the museum] died naturally, either in zoos or gaming reserves,” Rabbi Deutsch, 47, said. “We don’t kill any animals for our exhibits.”

He valued the entire collection at about $1.5 million and said many of the animals were donated but others he’s had to pay for, including a $40,000 elephant head. “We accumulated a lot of debt doing this.”

The museum, which opened in 2008, operates out of a private home that hit the market last week for $995,000, Rabbi Deutsch told the Post.

Visits are by appointment only, and the museum, which charges $10 per person, is still accepting reservations.

Deutsch said he doesn’t want to sell the two-bedroom home – which has a moosehead hanging outside near a second story window – and is still holding out hope for a miracle.

“If a sponsor came along and helped us, we would not sell,” he admitted.

But doing a mitzvah won’t come cheap. “We’ll need a million dollars,” he noted.

The animals will be moved to the museum’s branch in the Catskills, the Post reports.

{Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}


15 COMMENTS

  1. The story is just about one branch, or offshoot, of the Living Torah Museum, namely Torah Animal World. Evidently, it was too expensive to maintain it as a separate branch, in a separate building, in Boro Park, where real estate can be expensive. The main museum, namely the Living Torah Museum, will remain open, as will the branches upstate and in NJ, iy”H. And the collection from the Torah Animal World branch/offshoot that is closing, will not totally disappear, but will be incorporated in other branches.

  2. including a $40,000 elephant head.
    I just dont get it why not make one out of material thats used to make childrens teddy bears why spend so much money when its much easier theese days to make it out od artificial material why?

  3. WOW! i cant beleive this! i got an amazing tour from Rabbi Duetch. The artifacts in his museum are truly amazing! I hope he wont have to sell it.

  4. i wish i had a million dollars to give…that place is amazing! i went there a few times, went to the catskill one also..i really hope he won’t close!:(

  5. I once knew a Rav, a real Tzadik who said that he just wanted to see what the animals in the Torah looked like before he goes to Oilom-HoEmes. He was old and weak and he didn’t want to bother anyone or make a commotion but wherever he went he would attract crowds.

    We made the arrangements but he was just too weak to do the tour.

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